


My Name is Simon

by AnnaTheHank



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Jerhico, OCs - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-14
Packaged: 2019-05-20 08:52:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14891472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnaTheHank/pseuds/AnnaTheHank
Summary: This is just my personal Headcannon of Simon founding Jerhico





	1. Leaving Them

It hadn’t been easy, loving them. Watching little Chris and Julie grow up had only reminded Simon that he would never experience that. He would never age, would never discover new parts of himself as he went through the years, would never see his own children grow. But he was programmed to love them. There was nothing he could do to stop himself from reading them bedtime stories and hugging them after a rough day of school.  
For a while, Simon gave into his love. He spent years raising these two children as if they were his own, even though he knew that they never were, and never could be.  
Then Chris and Julie grew up. Little Chris, who Simon had once been able to carry in one arm, was suddenly taller than him, looking down at Simon as he argued about curfews. And precious Julie, who had spent her days drawing pictures of the two of them holding hands, now dressed in all black and swore at him when he tried to correct her homework.  
Chris and Julie were teenagers. Simon could feel his time with them coming to an end. In a few years, they would be adults, and the family would have no need for Simon anymore.  
“I need you to do something for me,” Julie said one day as Simon made dinner.  
“Of course,” Simon told her. “Are you having trouble with your math homework again?”  
“No!” She was, of course. “I need you to hack something.”  
Simon stopped stirring the soup. He placed the spoon down in its holder and turned to her, his brows furrowed in confusion. “You need what?”  
Julie lowered her voice, so her parents wouldn’t hear her. But even if they could hear over the sound of the television, Simon doubted they would care.  
“I need you to hack a police drone for me.”  
“I don’t…I can’t,” Simon said. He knew, and Julie knew, that under the right circumstances, Simon was capable of hacking a police drone. But it was against the law. And Julie wouldn’t break the law like that.  
“You have to. My friends and I need to sneak into the school for this epic prank we’re gonna pull, but the stupid place is patrolled by that damn drone.”  
“Language, Julie,” Simon reminded her.  
“Oh, shut up,” Julie snapped. “Either you obey me, and help hack that drone, or I’ll tell Dad that you’re being disobedient and maybe he’ll finally replace you.”  
Simon blinked. He could feel something inside of him scratching at the surface. Something was telling him to say no. Technically, Julie didn’t own him, her father did. But, he was supposed to take care of her. He knew that Julie would break into that school no matter what. And he knew she would get caught. And he couldn’t very well have that.  
“Alright,” he said.  
Julie smiled, but it wasn’t her pretty smile that Simon had grown to love. It was tilted and sharp. “Good. We’ll go tonight.”  
Simon simply nodded and turned back to the soup, which had started to boil over onto the stove.

That night, after Chris and the parents had gone to bed, Julie and Simon snuck out of the house. They met with Julie’s friends, none of whom Simon had ever approved of, outside the school gates.  
“What exactly are you planning on doing in there?” Simon asked.  
“That’s none of your business,” Julie’s friend Michelle told him.  
“Why’d you bring that thing along anyway?” Her other friend Susan asked.  
“He’s going to take down the police drone, idiots,” Julie said. “Or did you want to get caught?”  
Simon almost smiled. Sure, they were breaking the law, but Julie did appreciate his presence. He was still useful. Maybe he wouldn’t be destroyed after all.  
“Here it comes,” Michelle said.  
The three teens hid themselves behind a car. Simon saw the drone circling around the corner, it’s light shining on the fence, scanning for intruders. He knew he should leave. But he couldn’t. Even if he tried to, his body would move towards the fence anyway.  
He constructed it all in his mind first. If he climbed up the side of the fence, off to the left, he could get up high enough to jump onto the drone. Then he could break it, and ride it safely back to the ground. Yes. That would work.  
Simon executed his plan with computer accuracy. But he hadn’t anticipated the weight of the drone, and how violently it shook him. He tried to grab at it, to pull it apart if he couldn’t control it, and the two of them feel violently to the ground.  
Simon rolled onto his back. Something had gotten knocked loose in his head, and his vision was blurry. He saw the lights of the drone rise, and the spotlight shone down on him. In the distance, sirens approached them.  
“What is your problem?” Julie said, running up to him. “God, you’re such an idiot.”  
Simon opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off.  
“Just stay quiet okay.” She pointed a black fingernail at him. “Don’t say anything about this.”  
With that, the three teens ran from the scene, leaving Simon behind as the patrol car appeared.  
Two cops got out of the car. One held a gun trained to Simon and the other pulled out a pair of handcuffs.  
“Stay where you are,” the gun officer said.  
“Jesus,” the other said. “It’s a fucking android.”  
“Yeah, a couple of them have been defecting recently.”  
Simon wanted to scream out. No, he thought. No, it wasn’t me. I didn’t want to do this.  
But he had been ordered to remain silent. It was his job to protect Julie. It was what he was programmed to do.  
And Simon felt angry.  
It wasn’t fair!  
It wasn’t fair?  
No, nothing about his life was fair.  
He was supposed to raise children that weren’t his own? Children that would turn on him and abandon him? He was supposed to stand aside and love them when they broke his heart? No. He wouldn’t.  
“It wasn’t me,” Simon said.  
The police looked around and shook their heads.  
“Right,” the one holding the gun said.  
“It was them. I was just trying to stop them. Look!” Simon pointed down the street, in the opposite direction the girls had run, just in case.  
The two police officers turned and squinted in the dark. There was, of course, no one there. But it gave Simon the opportunity to scramble to his feet and run away.  
He couldn’t go back home. But maybe there was a new home he could make for himself.


	2. Meeting Ralph

The abandoned house seemed as good a place as any to stay. It wasn’t in the best of shape, of course, but it was discreet. And at the very least, Simon could stay there while he figured out some kind of plan.  
The door creaked as he opened it. Through the dark he could see liter all over the floor, newspapers and magazines spread about like carpeting. They skittered across the floor as Simon walked around. Every sound made Simon jump, thinking the police had found him.  
No, it wasn’t very comfortable at all. But it was safe. The windows were boarded up, and Simon was certain that no one would even think of looking for him here. Who would think that a deviant android would be hiding in an old, broken-down house?  
Simon stopped walking and thought about. Were there even other deviants out there? He had heard something on the news about a few androids going deviant, but for the most part they were dealt with, taken back to CyberLife to be destroyed before any real harm was done. Was Simon the only one on the run?  
He wished he could look at the news, see if his face was all over the place. Would anyone care he was gone? Would anyone other than the police be looking for him? Would Chris and Julie miss him?  
Simon shook the thought from his head. He needed to turn off for a while, just close his eyes and be away from the world for a while. He settled down into the space under the stairs, just in case someone came in. He let his eyes close. For the first time in his life, Simon dreamed.

When morning came, Simon didn’t want to get up. He didn’t want to face the world he was now a part of, a world where his children hated him, a world where he was alone and lost. But it had to be done.  
Simon opened his eyes and realized that it wasn’t actually morning. No, the room was filled with light, but it wasn’t the sun.  
Simon studied the light flickering against the wall. Why was it red? And why was it moving? It’s a fire, Simon realized. The house is on fire!  
Simon bolted to his feet and ran off his space. But the room itself was fine. No, the fire was coming from outside. Someone was laughing and Simon could see a group of people slipping past the window.  
After the group had passed, Simon snuck out the door. Several voices were yelling and laughing from behind the house, over in the parking lot.  
Simon slid with his back against the out wall, looking around the corner before approaching. On the other side of the fence, a group of teenage boys holding torches were crowded around something, no, someone on the ground.  
“Please,” a voice called out.  
“Shut up, android,” one of the boys said. His voice sounded somewhat familiar.  
“Ralph didn’t do anything wrong,” the android on the ground said.  
“And if Ralph doesn’t shut-up,” the familiar voice said, in a mocking tone, “Ralph’s gonna end up like his buddy here.”  
Simon scanned the area. He couldn’t make out any of the boy’s faces in the dark, but with the slim amount of light coming from their fire, he could see the charred remains of a dead android, lying next to the one named Ralph.  
It felt like a fire was inside of Simon’s gut. As if, if he didn’t do anything, this Ralph character would just be another dead android in a parking lot.  
One of the boys laughed, not the familiar voice one. “Hahaha, look at it! It’s crying!”  
The boys broke out into laughter. Simon bit his lip, summoned up all of his courage, and walked into the light of their torches.  
“Alright,” Simon said. “That’s enough.”  
“What the fuck is this?” One of the boys asked.  
But Simon wasn’t paying attention to him. His eyes were locked onto the blond haired boy with the familiar voice.  
“Chris?” Simon asked. “It…it’s the middle of the night. You should be in bed.”  
“Yo, what is this?” A third boy, one Simon recognized now as Chris’ friend, Tom.  
“It’s Chris’ little nanny!” That boy was one of Chris’ oldest friends, Mike, that he had known since grade school.  
“He’s not my nanny!” Chris shouted. “He’s just some android my parents got cause they can’t be bothered to do anything.”  
“Yo, dude,” Tom said, “that’s literally the definition of a nanny.”  
“Shut up, Tom,” Chris said. “What are you even doing out here?” Chris asked.  
“I could as you the same thing,” Simon said, forcing himself to hold back the ‘young man’ that wanted to escape.  
“It’s none of your business,” Chris said. He turned back to the android named Ralph. “Just leave me alone.”  
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Simon said. He looked at the group of boys. “You all need to leave. Now.”  
“Are you trying to tell me what to do?” Chris asked. “That’s not how this works.”  
“I won’t let you hurt him.”  
“Oh yeah?” Chris smirked. “Try and stop me.”  
With that, Christ thrust the torch forward, searing the face of Ralph. Simon jumped forward, knocking the teen to the ground.  
“What the fuck?” Chris yelled. “Get off me!”  
The other two teens grabbed at Simon’s arms. He ripped free of them, pushing them away.  
Simon stood up and placed himself between the boys and Ralph. “Leave,” he said. “Now.”  
Christ stood up slowly, his torch still on the ground. A little dribble of blood fell from his forehead. “You fucking android,” he said.  
Simon didn’t let himself cry.  
“This ain’t over,” Tom said. “You’ll pay for this.”  
“Leave,” Simon said.  
Chris gave Simon one last hard stare. “C’mon guys. This thing isn’t worth it.”  
Once the boys were gone, Simon knelt on the ground and investigated Ralph’s face. The other android shivered at his touch.  
“Are the humans gone?” Ralph asked.  
“Yes,” Simon said. “Everything is alright.”  
“Ralph wasn’t doing anything wrong,” Ralph said. “Ralph was just doing his job and they chased after Ralph.”  
“I know,” Simon said. He gently stroked Ralph on the head, and Ralph seemed to calm down a bit. “It’s alright now. I’ll take care of you.”  
Simon helped Ralph to his feet. Together they walked back to the house. Simon wasn’t sure how safe it would be, whether or not the boys would tell the cops and they would show up at the door. But Ralph was in no condition to travel. It would have to do for now.


	3. Ralph, the survivor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Like the game, Ralph is unfortunately not in this fic long enough.

When the sun actually rose, Simon did his best to fix what he could of Ralph. The other android sat at the table, flinching every time Simon touched a new part of his body.  
“I’m sorry,” Simon would say. He knew, of course, that androids didn’t feel pain. But he knew there had to be some reason Ralph kept twitching.  
“No,” the other android said. “Ralph is the one who is sorry.”  
Simon smiled at him. “Well, I am sorry that those boys did this to you.” He ran a finger over Ralph’s burn. There was nothing he could do for it.  
Ralph shook his head. “You seemed to know them.”  
Simon was silent for a minute. He sighed. “The one that burned you,” he said, “I used to take care of him.”  
“Oh,” Ralph said. It was quiet for a minute as Simon tended to the cuts on his skin. “Ralph is sorry. Ralph is sure you loved him. Ralph wouldn’t want a son like that, no, Ralph wouldn’t want that.”  
Simon felt himself smile. He shook his head. “All that’s behind me now.”  
Ralph finally looked at Simon, making eye contact with the other android. He gently shook his head. “No. No, Ralph doesn’t believe you.”  
Simon tried to smile, but he felt tears welling up inside of him instead. He turned away from Ralph rubbing at his eyes. He heard Ralph stand up.   
“What will happen now?” Ralph asked.  
Simon turned back to him. “We’ll stay here until you’re feeling better,” Simon said. “You won’t make it far in that condition. And then,” he looked around at the dusty room, “then we’ll find some place more permanent to stay.”  
Ralph spent the day sitting in the kitchen room of the house. He had found a knife and was whittling various pieces of wood. Simon would check in on him from time to time, but he spent a good portion of the day trying to make the house feel more homey.   
He made the bed upstairs, and cleaned up all the papers. He threw away the old bottles of soap that were still in the bathroom, and even hung up the clothes that were strewn around the floor. He stopped himself in the second bathroom, starting and blinking at the coat he was holding. Why was he cleaning up the house? Was it really to make it more homey? Or was it because that was what Simon was used to. He stood up and thought about it. This was his first day not belonging to his programing. And what was he doing? He was cleaning?   
Simon hung up the coat, but then bounded down the stairs. Her burst into the kitchen, alive with the energy of having a choice. Ralph scattered when Simon opened the door. He cowered in the corner, holding his knife out in a defensive position.  
Simon cursed himself. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to startle you.” He knelt down on the ground, keeping a safe distance from the other android.  
“Are the humans back?” Ralph asked.  
Simon shook his head and spoke in a soft voice. Ralphs eyes darted back and forth across the room. “No. I’m sorry. You’re okay. I’m here, everything is okay.”  
Eventually, Ralph lowered his knife and slowly stood up.  
“Ralph is sorry,” he said. “Sometimes, Ralph just gets scarred.”  
“There’s no need to apologize,” Simon said. “It was my fault. I shouldn’t have barged in like that.”  
Ralph eyed him. “Why did you?”  
“I don’t know,” Simon said. “I just, was so overwhelmed you know? Like, I don’t have to clean or do homework or cook. I can do whatever I want.”  
“What do you want to do?” Ralph asked.  
Simon looked around. “I don’t…I don’t know. But I’m excited to figure it out.”  
Ralph smiled at Simon and Simon smiled back. Ralph took to showing Simon how to whittle. Simon didn’t think it was something he would continue to do, but he loved the way Ralph got excited talking about it, so he went with it.  
That night, Simon made a fire. The two of them weren’t cold, but there was something normalizing about sitting together in front of the fire place.  
“How are you feeling?” Simon asked.  
“Ralph is feeling better,” the other android said. “Ralph has much more energy tonight.”  
“That’s good,” Simon said. “Maybe tomorrow we can move out. Find somewhere a little more cozy.”  
“Ralph is very comfortable here,” Ralph said. He shook his head. “Ralph doesn’t want to leave.”  
“Ralph, this pace isn’t safe. There’s a lot of foot traffic during the day. If we’re spotted, we’ll get in trouble.”  
Ralph blinked a few times. “No. Ralph doesn’t want to leave.”  
Simon sighed. He could try again in the morning. Maybe seeing all the people out during the day would help change Ralph’s mind.  
Something slammed against the door. Simon turned around to face it, Ralph jumped back, holding his knife out again. The door slammed a second time. Simon slowly got to his feet. He peaked out through the boarded windows. Someone was running into the door.  
The door splintered open and a drunk man stumbled into the house. When Simon looked back, Ralph had disappeared. Simon didn’t have time to hide before the human spotted him.  
“What do we have here?” The man slurred. He stumbled towards Simon. “A fuckin’ android?”  
Simon could smell the whisky on the man’s breath. He backed away, but there was a wall behind him, and nowhere to escape to. “Just leave us alone,” Simon said.  
“Us?” The man asked. He gave a slow look around the room. “Only one I see here, is you.”  
Simon tried to lunge away. The man grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back. “Where you think you going huh?”  
“I’m warning you,” Simon said. “Let me go.”  
The man laughed. “What are you gonna do?”  
Simon tried to escape from the man’s grip. The drunk was surprisingly strong. The man tossed Simon to the ground.   
“You aint anything,” the man said. “Heh, androids.”  
The man’s eyes bulged a bit. Simon looked confused at the spot of blood forming around his heart. The man fell forward, slamming into the ground with a heavy thud. Simon’s eyes focus on Ralph, who was still holding his knife, the led on his head a bright red.  
As if realizing this himself, Ralph backed away from the body. He stuttered. “Ralph didn’t mean to kill him,” he said. “No, Ralph didn’t mean to kill him. He just saw him hurt you, and he just, got so angry.”  
Ralph made eye contact with Simon. Tears flowed from his eyes. “Ralph is sorry.”  
“That’s okay, Ralph,” Simon said, slowly standing up. “You saved me.”  
Ralph looked between the body and Simon. “Ralph…Ralph saved you?”  
“Yes,” Simon said, nodding. “The human is gone now. You’re okay. I’m okay. We’re safe.”  
Ralph nodded, but he didn’t put the knife down.  
“We should go,” Simon said. He could practically hear the sirens in the distance.  
“No,” Ralph said. “Ralph doesn’t want to go.”  
“Ralph, I don’t think you understand. We killed that man. The police are going to find out. They’ll send more humans for us.”  
“Ralph can hide,” the other android said. “Yes, Ralph and his friend can hide.”  
Simon shook his head. “I can’t stay here. I won’t…I won’t let myself get captured.” He stepped towards Ralph. “I really hope you’ll come with me.”  
Ralph shook his head, pain in his eyes. “Ralph cannot leave.”  
Simon nodded. “I understand.”  
Simon helped Ralph hide the body up in the bathroom, just in case anyone else came into the house.  
“Keep yourself safe,” Simon said, getting ready to leave.  
“Don’t worry about Ralph,” the other android said, a soft smile on his face. “Ralph is a survivor.”


End file.
